


his gauntlet

by Markition



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Fluff, Kissing, M/M, ThanZag - Freeform, Zagthan - Freeform, an extremely specific headcanon about Than's gauntlet, and bones, mostly just cute, referenced nudity, sorry i just couldn't get the gauntlet thing out of my head, spoilers for Thanatos romance arc, than and zag being sentimental
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:14:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27179741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Markition/pseuds/Markition
Summary: For as long as Zagreus has known him, Thanatos has worn the gauntlet on his right hand. And now that Zagreus knows him a little better, it still hasn't come off.Zagreus doesn't know he wants to know why, until he asks.
Relationships: Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 490





	his gauntlet

“Dionysus said he thinks about inviting you to feasts sometimes,” Zagreus said. He was grinning, wry, mouth pressed to the soft skin behind Thanatos’ ear. “I thought about making an offering to tell him to do it.” 

“You’re incorrigible,” Thanatos said, but there was no bite to it. “That’s a waste of good nectar.”

Zagreus snorted. “I thought it was contraband.”

He felt, rather than saw, Thanatos’ half-shrug. “Only if Meg’s within earshot.”

They both laughed, soft and easy. Zagreus was keenly aware that they were approaching a loosely defined but ever-present time limit when Thanatos would stir into motion and extract himself from the sheets, muttering something about getting back to work-- but he hadn’t, yet. And Zagreus savored these moments when Death was content to be still. It was in these fleeting times together, curled around Than, that Zagreus felt content enough to doze, himself. 

Zagreus would take what little of Thanatos he could get. Neither of them sat still very well, but they were better at it when they were together.

Maybe because he was feeling sentimental, Zagreus reached over and threaded his fingers with Thanatos’. He got the gauntleted hand, because he couldn’t be bothered to un-tuck his face from Than’s hair to look where he was reaching. 

The surface was smooth, unlike any armor Zagreus had ever worn, but quickly becoming familiar the more times they did this. Metal pieces interlocking so masterfully that it felt like fish scales against his naked fingers, the glass eye that was almost hot against Zagreus’ palm, like a living thing. Sometimes he thought he could feel it thrumming with a pulse.

Not very  _ death-like _ , really, to have a heartbeat.

“I can’t believe this thing doesn’t even come off in bed,” Zagreus said, meaning for it to be a tease. He enjoyed this easy post-sex banter, and he thought Than did, too-- it felt like fighting alongside him, but softer. They both needed it.

Thanatos did not shoot back a glib response, though. He froze.

One thing Zagreus had begun to understand a little better since this -- whatever they were -- had started, was Thanatos’ silences. He’d gotten scolded a few times early on, and the Prince was nothing if not a fast learner. The silences were not always bad, and Zagreus was trying to be better about not worrying, or asking, or pestering.

But this particular silence felt  _ very _ charged, and Zagreus did not think all of it was in his head. He hiked himself up on one elbow so they could see each other. Thanatos was staring at him unblinkingly, pale moonlight eyes unreadable.

“What,” Zagreus said, brows furrowed.

“Zagreus…” Thanatos sounded all innumerable eons’ worth of his age in that moment. He flexed his gauntleted right hand and lifted it between them. “Why do you think  _ this thing  _ stays on?” 

Zagreus couldn’t help but feel the way Thanatos stressed the word  _ thing _ meant he should have addressed it with more respect. (This was a piece of armor and it didn’t care if it was addressed with respect, but also Zagreus used semi-sentient weapons daily. Nightly? Anyway, he got it.)

“Because you’re a workaholic?” Zagreus guessed. He’d honestly never thought twice about this. “I’m lucky you take your boots off, frankly.”

The glacial stare informed Zagreus succinctly that no, it was not because Thanatos was a workaholic-- though thankfully Death had the good sense not to debate the  _ being a workaholic _ part.

“Let’s just say Charon and I have more in common than just Mother Nyx,” Than said, right before he tugged the hand away and tucked it behind his head. He was nonchalant about it now, but the hesitation earlier told Zagreus that maybe this hand-gauntlet thing meant more than Thanatos was letting on. “Easier to work with, if it’s covered,” Thanatos added, quieter.

“Wait.” Zagreus was sitting up, now, bare-chested with the sheets pooling in his lap. “You and  _ Charon? _ He’s just bones with some good biceps, Than, what are you--  _ oh. _ ” Zagreus closed his mouth, suddenly feeling very foolish.

_ Just bones _ might’ve been entirely too accurate, Zagreus was realizing. Something was different about that hand, and he really had to stop letting his mouth run.

Thanatos, as patient as the dead, simply rolled his eyes and held the hand up again so Zagreus was looking at the back of the gauntlet. “Take it off.”

“Wait-- are you sure?” Zagreus looked past the gauntlet to study Thanatos’ expression. It was always hard to tell with him-- he was remote, sometimes glacial, and had an awful tendency to minimize his own feelings to avoid scrutiny-- but Zagreus had all of his stubborn will focused on the goal of  _ not hurting the ones he loved _ . Thanatos did not look comfortable. “You don’t have to show me. I really didn’t think this was something important to you, I’ll--”

“Just do it, Zag,” Thanatos said, exasperated, but there was the shadow of a smile on his face, now.

After another long moment of studying Thanatos for further signs of discomfort, Zagreus nodded. “Okay.”

The gauntlet was tight; there was more resistance than Zagreus expected when he wrapped his fingers around Thanatos’ wrist and tugged. But then he felt Thanatos twist his arm beneath him, something gave, and the gauntlet slid free. The first few inches of skin this revealed were perfectly normal; brown, with a pallor not unlike his namesake, Death. Just like the skin Zagreus had kissed and touched and tasted. 

Then, he pulled it further-- 

“Ah,” he said, with quiet understanding.

“Yeah,” Thanatos sighed. 

Zagreus cradled the gauntlet gingerly-- reverently-- in one hand, and held Thanatos’ right radial bone with the other. And it  _ was _ just a radius; the ulna beside it, both resting surreally against delicate carpals. His fingers-- finger bones-- curled loosely like a flesh-and-blood hand would, carefully relaxed when seized for closer inspection. 

Thanatos’ right hand, from mid-forearm down, was just clean bone. Not unlike Charon’s face. Zagreus understood the comparison, now.

“Does it hurt?” Zagreus asked.

“Does it  _ hurt? _ ” Thanatos huffed. He tugged his right hand free of Zagreus’ loose hold. “It’s my  _ arm,  _ there’s nothing wrong with it, why would it hurt? Do your feet hurt?”

“Fair point.” Zagreus offered the gauntlet back. 

Thanatos took it and slid it on. “Bones aren't the best at holding the hilt of a sword, though, so. The gauntlet helps.” He sat up, extracting himself from the remains of their earlier pleasure, the stains and the tangled sheets. “Anyway, I should go. I’m late.”

While Zagreus couldn’t blame Thanatos for wanting to leave after that one, he also couldn’t let the conversation end there. Something tasted off in the air, and this was exactly the sort of thing that would get under Zagreus’ skin and get him killed in the realms above later.

“Wait.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed and reached for Thanatos. When he didn’t pull away, Zagreus tugged Thanatos’ right hand closer and threaded their fingers together again. 

The gauntlet really was remarkably smooth. He wondered who crafted it, if maybe Nyx herself had willed it into existence. The legendary Hephaestus, perhaps?

“Thanks for showing me,” Zagreus said eventually, when he realized he’d been staring fondly at Thanatos and not speaking.

Thanatos looked away. He was a little flustered-- he was terrible at hiding it. “It’s fine, I--” He glanced back, almost rueful. “...I assumed you knew, for some reason.”

It certainly wasn’t the first time the immortal and eternal entities in his life had forgotten he, too, was not born near the dawn of time. Zagreus took it with an easy smile, because he couldn’t fault them for something like that. Not Thanatos, nor Hypnos, nor Megaera. Even Nyx forgot there were certain things he just hadn’t been around for. 

He was still learning.

“I’m not the Fates, Than,” he said. He picked up their joined hands and kissed the back of Thanatos’ gauntlet. “I can’t see everything.”

“ _ Tch _ .” Thanatos pretended to look annoyed, but his eyes were fond. “I know.” He frowned. “You just...know me so well, sometimes. I forget you weren’t always here.” He thawed into a very wan, glancing smile. “I guess I don’t like thinking about the early days. I don’t know how I did it before you came along.”

“Did what?”

“I don’t know. Live, probably.” Thanatos leaned in, stole a kiss that was both sweet and far too short, then stood. “I do really have to go.” 

Zagreus watched Thanatos get dressed from his spot on the edge of the bed. This was a familiar pattern; stolen time bookended by his lover removing the trappings of Death and dawning them again. He caught himself feeling disappointed about this, sometimes, but it was silly. They had an eternity of stolen moments ahead of them, that collected would equal a hundred thousand mortal lifetimes. That was more than enough.

“See you up top?” Thanatos asked, when he was dressed and as immaculate as he ever was. 

Zagreus had never known an age before Thanatos. Maybe it wasn’t so bad not knowing some things-- like his lover’s secret skeleton hand-- if it meant the House had always been there for him. The way Thanatos, and Nyx, and even Megaera talked about that period of time made Zagreus think maybe he was the lucky one.

And he didn’t think he was going to forget the way Thanatos just said  _ live, probably _ , anytime soon.

“Yeah,” he said to Than, and shot him his best  _ we’ve got this _ grin. “See you up top.”

It was not Zagreus’ imagination that Death was blushing when he vanished.

**Author's Note:**

> This headcanon has been knocking around my brain since I saw the character model of Than floating around on twitter. I had to get it out somehow...now maybe I can rest.  
> Or go play more Hades.
> 
> Thanks for the read!


End file.
